Cotuit’s hidden gem ready for the season

Friday

May 30, 2014 at 2:00 AM

The Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit is a hidden gem even though it is on Cotuit’s Main Street.

Susan Vaughn

READY FOR SUMMER – The Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit board members, who also serve as docents, pose in front of the fireplace of the Dottridge Homestead before their annual tea this week. They are, from left, Betsy Thomas, Vice President Beth Johnson, Vickie Vieira, shop manager Melanie Curtis, President Margy Kornblum and Past President Joyce Ginouves.

Historical society gears up for special events and tours

The Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit is a hidden gem even though it is on Cotuit’s Main Street. Tourists and even residents who never stray off Route 28 may never know about all the events and history held there, and that it has a great gift shop, the only one in the village.

But those who know about the society’s museum, 1898 icehouse, 1809 Dottridge Homestead, as well as its attractive, well-stocked gift shop flock there. New society President Margy Kornblum said the gift shop is like Macy’s on Black Friday and during the Christmas in Cotuit celebration.

“We get people in their bathing suits coming from the beach” to the gift shop, Vice President Beth Johnson said during a tour this week. She called the society “the best kept secret in Cotuit.”

The society’s three buildings opened for docent-led tours for the season on Memorial Day weekend and will remain open Fridays through Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. until Labor Day, then Saturdays and Sundays through Columbus Day. The society also holds some of the village’s biggest events of the year, starting with the Strawberry Festival on June 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We do it all here,” Kornblum said, including the homemade biscuits and whipped cream for the shortcake.

Later in the summer on July 26 is “A Taste of Cotuit,” an evening of fine wines and food from Cotuit and Cape providers.

Autumn in Olde Cotuit on Oct. 4 at the homestead will feature colonial craftspeople, a pie bakeoff, antiques appraisal, food and music.

The society also sponsors the Cotuit Chronicles lecture series on themes of historical and cultural interest to the community on the third Thursday of every month at the Cotuit Library. The first lecture this year will be at 7 p.m. on June 19 with David Churbuck speaking on “The Beginnings of Barnstable Colonial Life and the First Settlers.”

Johnson said a special exhibit in the museum for the town’s 375th anniversary will be installed soon. It is called “Cotuit Then and Now” and will feature before and after photos of village buildings and sites.

The small museum’s large, easy-to-read exhibit boards succinctly describe various aspects of Cotuit’s history – a former cooperage, saltworks, cranberry bogs, Cotuit oysters, the whaling industry, early hotels dating to the mid-1800s. A tiny room is set up as Dr. Donald Higgins’ office.

A 1916 Model T fire engine has its own room along with other firefighter memorabilia. The engine is taken outside for the Strawberry Festival as long as it doesn’t rain, Kornblum said. Then it goes to the current firehouse.

Next to the homestead is a tidy historic garden maintained by the Cotuit Bird and Garden Club, with separate raised beds for herbs, Native American produce and medicinal and other plants that would have grown in earlier times.

The homestead itself actually dates to before 1809 when it was moved from Brewster to Cotuit by oxen cart over several months while Samuel and Abigail Dottridge and their entire family lived in it, Kornblum said. The one-story compact house is furnished sparsely as it would have been at the time.

A long genealogical chart on the bedroom wall traces Dottridge’s entire lineage from England. Dottridge started the saltworks in Cotuit.

The society’s board and docents were gathered in the homestead on Tuesday for their annual tea, using authentic English teacups. Joyce Ginouves, who just stepped down as the society’s president for eight years, pointed out the small stove and cooking utensils in the large fireplace where the society members cook for an open house.

The Rothwell Ice House, dated 1898, is the newest addition to the society’s property. Installed in 2011, it contains the large saws and tools used to harvest ice from Little River and Lewis Pond and photos of the work.

The Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit museums, Dottridge Homestead and gift shop are open for the season Friday to Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. at 1148 Main St. For additional hours and events, visit the website at www.CotuitHistoricalSociety.org.

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